Rustic scenes from Lachine canal

The old abandoned Maltage factory down by the Lachine canal is a boon for artists, including myself as a watercolour painter. It provides an endless supply of industrial motifs and no trespassing required! At the rear of the factory, there is a corrugated metal structure with a funnel, it must have been where the malt trucks would fill up back in the day. From the looks of it, a person would have worked up there. It must have got hot in the summer, being a metal box. As usual recently, I replaced the graffiti with my initials PJD25. When composing a scene like this, the small apartments at the bottom left are important for creating the sense of scale. I did a night scene here with the pink house on top with a similar compositional idea. 

Maltage corrugated structure, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025  (No. 4905b)

Next to the locks, there is a water chute that allows the Lachine canal to continue flowing. One of the better paintings from all of last year was a similar scene of the water cascading under bridge, although today I wanted to feature the wall more than the water. Someone made a painting of a pylon on the stone platform above the wall, I though that was funny. 

Water chute locks wall, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4906a)

The locks are very old, and for the most part they are slowly disintegrating. It makes for some interesting, rustic colours and textures to paint. I generally start a painting like this with a thin outline using a brush and dilute grey or brown paint. I fill in the main colour blocks, making sure to leave space for lighter elements, since there is no white paint you have to plan ahead. Then I apply layers of texture using various brush techniques, followed by more detail with the small number 2 brush to finish. You can see the JD CD construction company working on a new building in the background, while DYER left her mark on a billboard. PJD25 was at it again, putting his throw on the staircase. 

Locks rustic, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, November 2025 (No. 4904b)